San Francisco 49ers fans feeling sentimental about Candlestick

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Candlestick Park awaits players and fans before the game at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, Calif. on Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012. The San Francisco 49ers played the New Orleans Saints in the NFC divisional playoff game.

SANTA CLARA — Before fans sit down to watch the 49ers at Levi’s Stadium at the start of the 2014 season, what will have happened to their trusted seats at demolition-bound Candlestick Park?

Those old, red and orange seats eventually will be made available for purchase, according to initial plans cited by a spokesman for San Francisco’s Recreation and Parks Department.

Niners CEO Jed York said fans are bombarding him with questions about acquiring seats or other souvenirs from Candlestick Park before its eventual implosion next year by Lennar’s developers.

“We’re getting closer, and I hope we’ll be able to get something done soon,” York said Thursday on NFL Network’s “NFL AM.” “That’s probably the most common question that I get asked from fans about Candlestick: ‘Can I get my seat? Can I get something from the stadium?’

“We want to make sure that we can provide that opportunity to our fans, and obviously we’re working with the city of San Francisco to make that happen.”

Fans interested in acquiring seats can e-mail inquiries (to: rpdinfo@sfgov.org) that will be kept in a database until Candlestick’s plans are finalized, according to Elton Pon of San Francisco’s Recreation and Parks Department.

Several 49ers fans reacted on Twitter with hope they indeed can be reunited with their seats after this season.

“I would love to be able to take my seat home after this season! Would be awesome!” wrote @JayMoore52.

City-owned Candlestick has been home to the 49ers since 1971. The Giants played there from 1960-1999, and The Beatles played their final concert there in 1966.

“Bittersweet is the perfect way to describe it,” York said of leaving Candlestick. “Candlestick has been around for a long time, started in the early 1960s. We moved in in 1972 (actually 1971).

“It was originally built for baseball; probably not the most comfortable football stadium, but there is a lot of history there. There is a lot of tradition, and we want to do everything that we can this season to celebrate the great times that we’ve had at Candlestick as the San Francisco 49ers.”

The 49ers launched a website last November (FarewellCandlestick.com) for fans to vote on their favorite memories there.

An auction of other Candlestick memorabilia seems plausible. Steiner Sports Collectibles held auctions after the demolitions of Giants Stadium and old Yankee Stadium.

The 49ers are expected to move in 2014 into Levi’s Stadium, next to their Santa Clara training facility. Levi Strauss & Co. bought the stadium’s naming rights for 20 years at $220 million, it was announced Wednesday.

Candlestick Park will host the 49ers’ regular-season opener Sept. 8 against the Green Bay Packers. The final regular-season game there is set for Dec. 23 against the Atlanta Falcons on “Monday Night Football.”

The 49ers are vying for their third straight NFC West championship. “This is going to be hands down the best division in professional sports, if it wasn’t already last year,” York vowed.

Levi’s Stadium is the front-runner to host the 50th Super Bowl in 2016, and NFL owners will vote May 21 between bids from the Bay Area and South Florida.

“It’s going to be a tough vote because you’ve got a stadium and a community that has hosted 10 Super Bowls compared to a brand new stadium that hasn’t,” York said. “I feel like we have a great bid; we have the best area in the world in the San Francisco Bay Area.”

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